About$29 billion needed to reclaim degradable land – Minister

The Minister for Environment, Lands, Innovation and Technology who doubles as the Chairman of the inter-ministerial committee for scale mining Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng has revealed that, it will cost the country about $29 to reclaim the degraded land of Ghana.

Speaking at the launch of new policy framework for mining operations at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), Professor Frimpong-Boateng stated that, the effect of illegal mining on Ghana’s lands and water bodies has become so devastating leaving water bodies highly polluted and expensive to treat.

“Water bodies that served as source for domestic use are all now polluted. Our forest and farm lands are all gone. Our landscapes now look as if it was deliberately bombed” he added.

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Prof Frimpong Boateng also noted that, it might get to a time when the country will have no primary forest vegetation.

Government in2017 was poised to spend 100 million dollars to reclaim lands destroyed by activities of illegal miners in the country, through the Multi-sectorial MiningIntegrated Project (MMIP).

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The five-year project is an initiative of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), aimed at combating ‘galamsey’ and also sanitizing the artisanal small scale mining in the country.

Following the widespread devastation of water resources and forest reserves as a result of the activities of illegal mining, government, in January 2017 placed a ban on small-scale mining for a period of six months.

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The ban was however extended in October 2017, for another three months, which ended in January 2018.